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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30144252">Clarion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopefulPenguin/pseuds/HopefulPenguin'>HopefulPenguin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Azula is sane in this one, Double Agent Suki, Gen, Graphic depictions of logistics, I really should figure out how tagging works, Lots of scheming and politicking, Order of the White Lotus, Suki Joins The Gaang, There's some Sukka content but it's not the focus, older sister azula</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:21:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>14,113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30144252</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopefulPenguin/pseuds/HopefulPenguin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Crown Princess Azula plots to overthrow Ozai and bring about her own vision of the world. The first step? Making sure the newly awoken Avatar isn't a threat, and ideally, getting him on her side. That's where Suki comes in.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sokka/Suki (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Confrontations and conversation on Kyoshi Island.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi everyone! So this is a pretty hefty AU, but the core of it is that Azula is older than Zuko, and grew up with a lot of influence from Iroh and Lu Ten. More details at the end of the chapter. </p><p>The title is inspired, obliquely, by Kennedy’s speech at his inaugural where he exclaims ‘Now the trumpet summons us again’ in reference to fighting the Cold War. Given much of this fic is about political manipulations and twilight struggles, it felt fitting. </p><p>Come yell at me on Tumblr - @the-hopefulpenguin.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>From high above, the Fire Nation’s Third Army was a machine of interlocking organisation. Some would even call it beautiful, lines of tanks moving east to forward positions along roads across a fifteen mile span, banners carried behind them by foot-soldiers. To their rear, a tent city in geometric array, grid upon grid of red canvas stretched taught to drill-book standard, surrounded by fortifications dug by auxiliary earthbenders, setting sun painting them in new hues. </p><p>The hawk paid this no heed. It found its home tower, semi-permanent wood in the forest of tents, and stooped on weary wings. The flight from Kyoshi Island had been long. </p><p>As it fell through the air, the machine came apart. Tents which seemed so pristine from height were torn, muddied, stained by wear and tear. Idling vehicles grumbled and spewed noxious, gritty black smoke which warred with the dust thrown up by the passage of thousands of boots. The air stank of cheap wine and moo-sow leavings. Engineers bickered back and forth. Local auxies in browns and greens played cards against the red-and-black troops of Sei’naka and Saowon. The Third were veterans and, like all veterans, wore their bedragglement with pride. </p><p>The hawk found its roost. It was relieved of its message tube by one Private Pihan, a pimple-faced auxiliary from New Yokoya on the evening shift. He’d lost a week’s wages on gambling the previous night, and was still sour about it, because it deprived him of a session with his favourite joy-girl. He made to put the message in a routine hopper for distribution when he saw the recipient, and the stamped crest. </p><p>It was spring, and the western Earth Kingdom’s evening was balmy. It didn’t stop him sweating as he hurried to the headquarters. </p><p>From Pihan, the tube passed to a guard, and then to a string of staff officers. It found her with practiced alacrity. She was taking tea with generals Mak and Zhang in the shade of an orchid tree behind the headquarters, the weak sun dappling through the pink and white blossoms, playing upon their map of the southern Earth Kingdom. </p><p>She broke off from the discussion when the message arrived, still unread. The crest upon it limited viewing to only those she authorised - a short list. And her authority was writ large across the continent. The wax popped open audibly in the quiet. The note was brief for the effort it had taken to arrive:</p><p>
  <em>Avatar on Kyoshi Island. Ginseng’s theory correct. Proceed with haste - Parasol.  </em>
</p><p>Crown Princess Azula, General-in-Chief of the Armies of the South, set the rice paper aflame with a flick of her fingers. And smiled.</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>---</p>
</div>Kyoshi Island, in Sokka’s not at all biased opinion, was pretty awesome. And so was Suki. In fact more than that. So, of course, Zuko had to show up to ruin everything. Katara had vetoed his nickname idea of ‘bald-angry-scar-boy’, so he was stuck with using the actual name, even if it felt far too dignified for such a petty and annoying person.<p>He and Suki were crouching in cover behind one of the houses on the main street, watching as Zuko approached with his guards on their mounts, huge beasts with dangerous tails and armour plating. He gripped his fan tighter. </p><p>“What’s the plan?” he hissed to her. </p><p>“Just wait,” she said, holding up a finger to emphasise it. Looking up, he could see other Kyoshi Warriors getting into position on adjoining roofs and alleyways. The townsfolk peered out of windows and doorways, faces pale and eyes wide. </p><p>“Come out Avatar. You can’t hide from me forever!” Zuko bellowed. As point of fact, Sokka wanted to correct him, Aang probably could. They’d done it so far, after all. But he wasn’t about to ruin Suki’s ambush with a quip. Even if it was, in his opinion, rather witty. </p><p>A moment passed in deadly silence. Faces disappeared from windows. Then another. He tensed on his heels, weapons ready. </p><p>“Find him,” Zuko ordered his men, curtly. Typical, Sokka thought, making others do the dirty work. The other Fire Nation soldiers started forward, and Suki raised her hand to signal - and then stopped, suddenly. </p><p>He looked around, trying to understand - </p><p>There was a single figure, a woman in the gilt-and-black armour of the Fire Nation, strolling down the central avenue towards Zuko’s riders with every air of casualness. Her hair was bound in a top-knot by a headpiece of twin golden flames. </p><p>“You know, Zuzu,” she said, voice high and carrying and immensely mocking. “I really wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” </p><p>“What are you doing here?” he fired back, bringing his mount closer. </p><p>“They’re distracted, we can take them,” Sokka said. </p><p>The two Fire Nationals were talking in the background, exchanging barbs. He didn’t paid them only surface mind, hearing without processing, not then. He preferred looking at Suki. And listening to her. That too. That was more important. Obviously. </p><p>Suki nodded in acknowledgement. “They are. Let’s move. The Avatar was in the bay. We need to pick him up and get out of here. Fighting the Fire Nation is not as important as making sure he’s safe.” </p><p>There were half a dozen questions stemming from that in Sokka’s mind, all scrabbling and scratching for attention. But one easily led the pack. “We?” </p><p>She blushed, very faintly. “I - only if you want me to come along, I - “</p><p>Sokka’s grin outshone suns, and he very nearly forgot about being quiet. “Of course! Let’s go.”</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>---</p>
</div>Azula had few vices, and those she did possess, she extirpated efficiently. A love of the dramatic moment, the visceral satisfaction of perfect orchestration to an audience, was one she had not yet gotten rid of. Something to remember her mother, perhaps.<p>Of course, in this case, timing had dictated a confrontational approach. Even at best speed, by eel-hound and frigate with steam up awaiting her arrival, the journey from New Yokoya had taken four days, enough time for Zuko to arrive as well. Her plans of a pacific meeting with the Avatar had been dashed. But Parasol - Suki’s sense of humour was covert but irrepressible, something Ty Lee’s mentorship had not helped with - had her orders. Azula merely had to buy time for the whole party to escape her brother. </p><p>Her walk towards Zuko and his heavy cavalry escort - an unsubtle show of force poorly suited for the actual business of fighting in a town - was casual, an easy stride. But her hands flexed free at her sides. It had been nearly a year since she had seen her younger brother. She doubted his anger had diminished. Caution paid. </p><p>He called out his latest demand to the hiding villagers, seemingly not spotting the flashes of green as Kyoshi Warriors moved into position on his flanks. She would have to have words with Iroh on his tactical training. </p><p>She responded. “You know, Zuzu,” her voice lilting with contained laughter. “I really wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” </p><p>“What are you doing here?” he spat back, turning surprise to venom, face ugly with unconcealed anger. And, if she were in a mood to be critical, it bore remarking that his looks hardly needed the help. </p><p>“Paying a visit to our ally, Kyoshi Island,” she replied, walking closer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Suki in close conference with a Water Tribe boy, half-hidden by a stack of barrels in a side alley. They had to get moving soon. “An ally critical to our offensive on Gaoling - and one I’m sure you weren’t in the process of threatening?” </p><p>“I - “ he said, the words cut out from under him. A pair of his guards were looking as if they intended to block her path, demands for identity scrawled across their expressions, somehow not knowing who she was. The scarred leading the blind. Delightful. </p><p>“Crown Princess Azula,” she said, by way of introduction, smiling like a knife. “You may bow. Or not. Your choice.” </p><p>They bowed. Zuko reddened to an unflattering shade of puce. </p><p>“The Avatar was seen here,” he ground out, when they were close enough to talk without informing the entire village. Faces were poking furtively back out of windows to watch the spectacle anyway. </p><p>“I heard,” she said, shrugging airily. “Fishermen’s gossip. I have men talking to Oyaji - the island’s governor, if you didn’t know. They will be able to verify the truth behind such claims. Swaggering in with soldiers at your back may be appropriate on occasion, but a quiet word goes much further than a fireball.” </p><p>She was lecturing. She knew she was lecturing, and relished in it. He had always hated it, before his exile, his older sister coming to illuminate him with condescension dripping from every word. It had been too long since her last opportunity, and she had to make up for lost time. </p><p>“If they helped the Avatar, they’re traitors,” he said, stabbing a finger at her face as emphasis. </p><p>“If the Avatar was here, perhaps. Or maybe they were simply intimidated by him. A fair and cooperative investigation will uncover the truth,” she lied, fluently. The people of the island were many things, but open and friendly to foreigners was not one of them. Her pilgrimage to Kyoshi’s holy site had only avoided violence by Agni’s grace. Zuko had dodged a similar fate by her grace, the phrasing deliciously sacrilegious. </p><p>Zuko grunted acknowledgement. She smiled. “Please, feel free to supervise - my men will be eager to serve. Now, is uncle aboard your ship? We never did finish our last game of pai sho, you know.” </p><p>He didn’t know, and didn’t care much either, but he espied an easy way to get her out of his hair, and sent her off to his ship with almost impolite haste, before storming off to be lied to by Oyaji. And hence, she found herself in short order in Iroh’s personal room, thick metal door firmly closed, guards sent away, and tea set laid out. </p><p>She looked at her cup dubiously. “Jasmine? Unadventurous, don’t you think?” </p><p>He laughed, a belly laugh of real amusement. She couldn’t help but smile honestly at the sound, however briefly. Before Ba Sing Se, she’d heard it regularly, as Lu Ten and her played or read. It sounded like endless summer afternoons. </p><p>“After all we’ve been through chasing the Avatar, unadventurous is what we need,” he said. </p><p>“Of course,” she said, an automatic politeness before moving to the meat of their business. “You were right about him. I owe you another white dragon.” </p><p>He waved a hand to dispel the words. “Don’t think of it as a debt, dear niece, but - “ </p><p>“But you want it anyway. No issue, it will be handled.” She paused, and took a slightly cooler tone. “A shame that the situation here escalated - and fortunate that I happened to be on the island; logistical preparations for the Gaoling effort.” There was a note of censure in her voice, mild and deliberate, not the affected scorn of court and field. </p><p>Iroh sighed and took a sip of his own tea. “Your brother can be…headstrong.” He fixed her with a gaze that, while not a glare, at least attended the same soirees. “Especially when you goad him. The past years have been harder than you know.” </p><p>“The Fire Lord’s judgement was intemperate,” she said, picking the words and tone with the care of someone dancing through a thorn bush - a learned instinct, even for one as steeped in treachery as herself. “That Zuko doesn’t see the injustice of it is a barrier.” Not that she would ever take him into her inner circle, no matter his opinions of Ozai. Uncalculating in his arrogance, and far too easy to provoke. </p><p>“He is still young.” </p><p>She made a thoroughly undignified snorting sound at that. “At his age, I was smashing the Army of the Western Marches. Speaking of, can you get Bumi to stop asking me to invade Omashu? If he wants to be so relieved of his crown so ardently, he can always abdicate.” </p><p>“I will send a hawk,” Iroh said. “But he does work hard for his reputation. And annoying you, too, of course.” </p><p>Bumi’s willing placidity was a valuable strategic asset, both to Azula’s campaigns, and to the Order’s plans - those which she knew about, anyway. Bumi understood this and exploited it, to Azula’s irritation and the Piandao’s quietly polite glee in particular. He never had gotten over their first, and last, sword-fighting lesson.</p><p>She moved on past it. “I assume the Avatar is headed to the North Pole to learn waterbending.” </p><p>“We believe so. Master Pakku will make more formal contact with him there.” </p><p>“Sensible,” she said, nodding and smiling. “While he is within my command, I will do everything in my power to speed his passage.” </p><p>This was a lie, of course. One of many - both direct and by simple omission. Multitudes and layers were needed - she knew how perceptive Iroh was, for all he tried to hide it. Her plans were not his and they would not be advanced by the Avatar reaching the North Pole. </p><p>And he wouldn’t. Suki knew her duty.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okay, so! Some clarification on the AU because context is always a good thing. Azula is 20 years old, Zuko is 16. Azula has been given plenipotentiary command of the Fire Nation’s war effort in the southern Earth Kingdom, and she’s prosecuting it with an eye towards building herself a base of power. She also knows about and has been somewhat involved with the White Lotus via Iroh (he had very high hopes for her involvement with it prior to story start, as of current they have cooled somewhat). </p><p>She doesn’t like Ozai at all. Future chapters get into this, but basically it’s a combination of her being very disdainful of him, and having other, more positive, influences. </p><p>As mentioned in the chapter, some years before story start, she goes off to Kyoshi Island on a pilgrimage - in large part because Avatar Kyoshi, and Rangi in particular, is a potent symbol of the kind of nation-building exercise she’s trying to do. Shenanigans occur and she befriends Suki; again, don’t want to spoil the fic but do want to clarify. </p><p>On a non-context note, I hope I got Zuko right here. Arguably Azula comes off as too in control - but I think it makes sense that he’s discombobulated by her, and in fact even more so than in canon, because she’s older and hence even more of a measuring stick.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Suki and Sokka have a conversation. Azula drinks tea and talks treachery.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So…is he always like this?” Suki asked, watching Aang - the Avatar, incarnation of ten thousand generations of heroes, saviour of the world, writ of the spirits manifest - jump up and down in a nearby tree. Katara was standing under it, running through waterbending forms. </p><p>Sokka heaved a sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, he is. But he is only twelve.” </p><p>“I guess,” she replied, sitting back in the saddle. “It’s just - that boy was Kyoshi, too. Is Kyoshi. Just weird, you know?” </p><p>Any further musing was broken off as Aang alighted from his branch and fell to the earth beside them on a cushion of air, Katara following in his wake. They’d stopped to let Appa rest - and the entire idea of sky-bison was still one she was trying to get her head around. Rest breaks, mud between toes, and itchy, coarse fur had not been recorded in the sagas. Still, the animal clearly needed it. They’d flown non-stop from Kyoshi Island, crossing over to the mainland, coming down near Chin. The white-capped peaks of the Kolau Mountains loomed at the far horizon. </p><p>“Okay,” Aang said, cheerily. “So, we did Kyoshi Island. I think the next stop should be Omashu.” </p><p>She tensed at that, just slightly, pressing down the urge. King Bumi’s city, and an obvious place to contact the Order of the White Lotus. Did he know about them already? It wouldn’t make sense, but she couldn’t think of any other reason - </p><p>“They’ve got this mail system with chutes all over the city, you can ride them. It’s a lot of fun,” he finished, smiling at antiquity. </p><p>“Sounds fun,” Sokka said, dry and droll. She couldn’t help but smile at that. He had a wicked sense of humour, and a real grasp of practicalities. Once she’d beaten the disparagement out of him, of course, but that was just as enjoyable. “But we need to get Suki some new clothes.” </p><p>“Huh? Why?” asked Aang. </p><p>“I’m…pretty distinctive,” she said, picking the words with care. She needed to gain the Avatar’s trust for the plan to work. Ridicule was inappropriate, even if the good sense of Sokka’s statement was obvious to everyone. </p><p>“Oh, right. Of course.” </p><p>“I have some spares,” Katara said. “But I’m not sure if they’d fit properly.” </p><p>“It would be a good idea to get Earth Kingdom clothes for everyone,” Suki replied, shifting the discussion away from her, towards the whole group. Anonymity was the best shield. Azula was hardly complimentary of Zuko’s abilities, but he was a dedicated hunter, and the Lotus had eyes everywhere to boot. “We’re going to be here for five weeks at least, right?” </p><p>“That’s really smart,” said Sokka, just as Aang confirmed her estimate of their flight time. She succeeded in not blushing at the former, and filed the latter for her first report. </p><p>“We flew past a town just a few miles back,” said Katara. “I bet we could buy what we need there.” </p><p>That town, of course, was Chin, and Suki knew that she wouldn’t get a healthy reception there. In fact, Tong would likely have her hurled from the cliffs if he saw her on the basis of the uniform alone. She explained this fact to the rest of the group, and it was agreed that Aang and Katara would go into town - with the former under strict instruction to stay quiet about his identity - while Sokka and her remained to protect Appa. This arrangement suited her just fine. </p><p>“So,” Sokka asked, as the other two left, leaning back against the saddle on his side of the bison. She sat across from him. “You’re just a day away from Kyoshi Island and it turns out you’ve got a death sentence in at least one town. Just how well-travelled are you?” </p><p>It was a weak joke. She laughed anyway, and made to deflect. She’d seen most of the western Earth Kingdom in the three years she’d known Azula, from the great port at Yu Dao to Pohaui Stronghold. But that sort of thing would be troublesome to explain, to put it mildly. “Says the boy how many thousands of miles from home?” </p><p>She’d meant to make a light-hearted jab. The way his expression stiffened told her she’d missed the mark. </p><p>“It wasn’t like we had a choice.” </p><p>“I’m sorry, I - “ she began. </p><p>He waved a hand, as if to clear the air. “Nothing to be sorry about. The Fire Nation don’t stop. We were lucky to get away.” He looked at her, then, dead-on. His tone hardened a little, and she saw out of the corner of her eye his hand resting too-casually near his boomerang. “So what was that woman saying about Kyoshi Island being an ally of the Fire Nation?” </p><p>Options flickered past her. She could take him. She was armoured, he wasn’t, and she was a better close combatant to boot. But what then? Could she come clean? It was possible. But she didn’t think it would work, not yet, not without Azula standing by. And violence now would certainly push them into the Order’s camp. Time to talk. </p><p>“I was wondering when you’d ask that,” she said, carefully. His nod was shallow, and his gaze didn’t shift, but she’d been under harsher interrogation than this. “We sell them fish.” </p><p>He blinked. Not the answer he was fearing. “Fish?” </p><p>She shrugged bashfully. It stung a little that her island’s most treasured export wasn’t poetry, or philosophy, or soldiers - no Sei’naka for them - but rather food. Still. Good cover. “When Avatar Kyoshi created the island, she dug an undersea trench. It’s rich fishing ground. We used to sell to communities along the coastline, but the Fire Nation now buys everything.” </p><p>His hand was drifting away from the weapon, and his eyes were curious, as well as angry. Progress. She allowed herself to breathe again. </p><p>“You’re helping the Fire Nation?” </p><p>“If we don’t sell to them, the Fire Navy will come in and blow the ships to bits. But it’s not so bad. They treat us well.” </p><p>He sighed. “I guess that makes sense. It’s so arrogant of them.” </p><p>The situation was too fragile to correct him. And she wasn’t like Azula, she didn’t revel in the power of knowledge. The naivety was almost charming. She’d have to address it at some point, find some way to peel it back, show him that the Fire Nation really could be worked with, reasoned with, under the right leader. But not yet and not now. His suspicion was still fresh. She admired him for it. Good sense in all particulars. </p><p>“You know,” she said, after a silence that seemed to stretch, but not wholly uncomfortably. “We never did finish that last training session. Want to stretch your legs?” </p><p>His eyes gave her the answer.</p><p>---</p><p>She’d been back from Kyoshi Island for two days when she got the message, handed to her by a staff officer so new to the role that he was surprised she knew his name. Her birth granted her the right to rule, but it was the loyalty of her men who made that right a reality. Ozai and Iroh had both impressed that upon her - the former in traditionally blood-thirstily inappropriate fashion, the latter with texts drier than the Si Wong. Not that the quality of the lessons detracted from the core truth. </p><p>The note was longer than the first, scrawled quickly, and smelling faintly of cabbage. The Avatar visited Omashu and spoke to King Bumi, who didn’t mention the Order. He was accompanied by a waterbending novice from the south, and her brother, a young but promising warrior - facts accompanied by quick profiles of each member of the party. Their overall objective was the Northern Water Tribe, unsurprising, but the next major destination was Asuyi, a mining village not far from Mo Ce coastline. Too distant for Azula to practicably reach in time, but she had power there. Suki reckoned that a waterbending scroll provided to the Avatar’s party would slow them down and serve to increase trust when the reveal began. Azula agreed, drafted a note to set plans into motion, and went to tea. </p><p>The tea was, in fact, a high level command meeting with Mak and Zhang, her most trusted, without all the impedimenta of a formal conference of war. </p><p>That didn’t stop Zhang from rising to bow when she arrived under the tree anyway. Sot. She knew he was just doing it to annoy her. </p><p>“Sit down,” she said and fit action to her words.</p><p>He sat as well, unperturbed. “Merely doing your highness appropriate honour.” </p><p>“Save it for when I’m on the throne,” she said, shortly, and took a cup. “Gentlemen, I regret to report that the Fire Lord has ordered we capture Omashu as a matter of the utmost urgency.” </p><p>By the proper protocol, she should have called a meeting the moment the message arrived, and had the army striking tents to obey his whim within the hour. The delay was a petty rebellion, and one she luxuriated in. Ozai’s bird had outgrown its nest - and its cage - a long time ago. </p><p>“The Fire Lord surely cannot be so misinformed?” Mak asked, incredulous. </p><p>She took a sip of tea - ginseng. A sure sign Pao was on the kitchen roster that day. Ever uncreative, but stolidly competent. “I would not wish to divine the depths of my father’s wisdom.” </p><p>“I will,” said Zhang, lightly. He was Mak’s junior by a decade, and acted younger still. The third son of High General Mung back in Caldera - it was a defence mechanism. She could appreciate that. “He clearly wants a sinecure to give to someone.” </p><p>She nodded, swift and single. “That is most likely. Ukano is highest in the Fire Lord’s favour. He wants a staunch loyalist in command of such a defensible position.” </p><p>“And Ukano no doubt wants to skim the tax monies,” Mak grumbled, before taking a long draught of his tea. </p><p>Her shrug was easy. “No doubt of it.” </p><p>“We do the dying, they do the stealing,” Zhang said, with a snide, joyous bitterness. “Have to say, I don’t like the way it’s divvied up.” </p><p>In other circles, and other places, voicing such sentiments would court demotion, challenge, and execution. But in the Armies of the South, they were stock-in-trade. Men and women groused around campfires, officers of file and line muttered into bowls of wine, generals cut apart golden afternoons with words a hairline from treachery. The effort of four years, and she couldn’t be happier with it. </p><p>“Nonetheless,” she said, steering the conversation to matters of military import. “The Fire Lord points and we obey. Mak, I want you to take 5th and 8th Corps to continue the attack against Gaoling. Kyoshi Island has assured us of their committment to sustain the advance along the coast. The rest of the army will move north with me, take Omashu, and link up with Shang’s 6th Army.” </p><p>Mak looked like a lemur that had gotten at the moon-peach preserve - and not a surprise. Independent command was to be coveted. “The 5th and 8th? You spoil me.” </p><p>“Gaoling has to fall. Especially since we’ve received word from the East Lake.” </p><p>“We have?” Zhang quirked his eyebrows. </p><p>She smiled. “Or rather, I have, and am now sharing it with you. The Earth Court is sending us fresh meat to the slaughter. General Fong landed 100,000 troops on the western shores of the Lake three days ago.” </p><p>“Fong?” echoed Mak. “They’re really that desperate?” </p><p>“He’s reliable, at least,” Zhang said, thoughtful. “A Dai Li pick, I presume?” </p><p>“It’s likely,” she said, toying with her cup. “He’s slowly proceeding west. Once he’s crushed, the road to Ba Sing Se is open. If Sing Se and Gaoling both fall, then the war could be over by the solstice.” </p><p>There were complexities to it that she didn’t bring up with them. They were trusted with a portion of her plans, the larger portion of them. She had their loyalty, but not their lives. Not the way she held Mai and Ty Lee. And she hadn’t developed them like Suki. The armies of the Earth Kingdom did have to be destroyed. But to win the Avatar’s trust, she had to do that before she caught up to him - common sense and Suki’s reports suggested he would not take well to slaughter. And talking to the Avatar was something she could only do while he was in the southern Earth Kingdom; her power was plenipotentiary, but not unlimited. Both Ozai and Iroh would look askance at a deviation from her assigned theatre. </p><p>As Zhang and Mak turned to discussion of logistics and traded imprecations upon Fong’s character, a dozen waterclocks began to tick in Azula’s head.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Gaang travels to an Earth Kingdom mining town. Sokka and Suki chat about equality.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Asuyi, the key mining town supplying fuel for the Fire Navy coaling station at East Achoya, focal point for much of the state’s economy - and host to a pair of very confused waterbenders. </p><p>“I don’t understand,” Katara said, sitting back against the wooden wall of an outlying processing shed. “They’re working together?” </p><p>“I know,” Sokka supported, between bites of bread. “It’s really weird.” </p><p>Their curiosity, and dismay, had been piqued when passing the mine workings on the way into town proper. Earthbenders, in the green and brown of the Civilian Auxiliary Corps, not that Suki could tell them that, had been pulling coal out of the ground; even as Fire Nation engineers supervised loading it onto a railway line of Saowon design. </p><p>“I had lots of friends in all the nations,” Aang volunteered. He paused, with a look of what seemed to Suki unusual sagacity. “But it’s not the same, I know.” </p><p>“Suki, what do you think?” Sokka asked, with the not unpleasant assumption that she would have all the answers - something honed by long practice over the two weeks since Kyoshi Island. Once he trusted, he trusted absolutely. </p><p>“The Fire Nation has been trying to integrate with the Earth Kingdom here,” she said, picking the words with care. “It’s not a slavery thing, if that’s what you were worried about.” </p><p>“Well, now I am,” Katara muttered. Then she stood with a sigh. “Anyway, we still need supplies. Sokka, do you have the list?” </p><p>“Of course!” Sokka said, mock-offended. Suki stifled a smile. “Right here.” </p><p>They divvied up the tasks quickly. None of the others wanted to spend longer in Asuyi than they had to, even the typically gregarious Aang, and it was decided splitting up would be most effective. That they seemed to hate or fear a model of what Azula was trying to create did rankle slightly, but it was not to be unexpected, she supposed. In any event, Suki claimed she would sort out the food. This was partially a lie. </p><p>To be sure, she went first to the market, thick with accents. Local farmers hawked moo-sows and pig-chickens, for barter or sale, jabbering in hill dialects to obscure for her to understand. An Inita merchant loudly proclaimed the value of his priceless artifacts - a cursory examination showed them to be blown-glass baubles. A lean Keosoho woman bargained with a Gaolinger over grain futures, sharp hand gestures dicing the air. She even heard rough-edged Kyoshi trade speak, floating from booths at the far corner of the square, a nostalgia to smile at. </p><p>This was what Azula had created and would create. Suki wasn’t blind. She knew what the Fire Nation had done, and did do. But the Avatar’s absence had brought new life, not just death and tyranny. A new nation, a fusion of Fire and Earth into a new future, was possible. She wandered as she thought, buying up buns and hard-tack, placing them in her bag. </p><p>Two years ago, she’d sat with Azula atop a peak of the Kolau range, looking out over the tributaries of the great Baiyi river, threading like blue silk across plains golden with the evening light. The princess had told her then, sincere and serious, that they had it in their power to begin the world over again. Ambition to span the heavens and touch the spirits in flight. There, at the top of the world, she had believed. She still did. </p><p>Some part of her saw the agent and yanked her from the reminiscence. He was a slight man, with a receding hairline, scraggly moustache, and plain brown jacket. But for the single peony tucked into his pocket, he was just the same as any of the half a hundred itinerant field hands milling about the town. </p><p>She folded her right sleeve up twice, and left once, precise and learnt motions, before going over to him. His eyes didn’t widen when she came into view. Well trained. </p><p>“A beautiful day,” she said, and gestured at the flower. “For a lover?” </p><p>He smiled, briefly. “From a friend.” </p><p>The two-part code for operatives within Omashu State. She’d been lucky enough to learn them all, for her duties were wide-ranging. So she simply nodded. “A kind friend,” and brushed past him, back towards the market and the Kyoshi fish stands. </p><p>When she checked her bag, some five minutes later, she was unsurprised to discover a rice paper note from Azula, and a scroll describing waterbending techniques. </p><p>---</p><p>Both Katara and Aang had been very pleased at her ‘discovery’ of the scroll, and they decided they would take a few days to practice, pitching a camp some dozen miles from Asuyi, splashing in the waters of a Baiyi tributary. This suited Suki just fine. Azula’s note told her that she was bringing an Earth Kingdom army to battle, and wouldn’t be able to meet the Avatar for some time yet. </p><p>Sokka, on the other hand, was not so won over. </p><p>“We should move on soon,” he said, on the second day, returning from the forest fringing their campsite with a load of wood. Aang and Katara were throwing water at each other in the river. Suki looked up from her spare trousers; they’d snagged on a thorn bush, and she was sewing them closed. </p><p>“We’re safe enough here, right?” she asked. </p><p>He sat down heavily next to her, wood tumbling into a pile. “I don’t know. Zuko’s really good at finding us.” </p><p>From what Azula had told her, and what she’d seen on the island, Suki wasn’t sure if Zuko was good at anything. But she didn’t think that would go down well. “We haven’t seen him since Kyoshi Island, I think we can take a bit of time.” </p><p>“I guess,” he said, staring out at the river. </p><p>She put a hand on his shoulder. Which was just part of playing the role of a friend. Of course. “What’s the matter, Sokka?” </p><p>He looked skeptically at her, but didn’t shrug her off. She took it back anyway. “Nothing.” </p><p>“You haven’t made a joke in five hours. Something is definitely wrong.” </p><p>He paused, and then sighed heavily, eyes still on the river. “I just - this sounds stupid. But I bet I’m going to feel useless soon.” </p><p>She shifted a little closer. “Useless?” </p><p>He held up his fingers, ticked off his points on them, the lightness of his tone a transparent deception. “Aang’s the Avatar, obviously. Katara’s a waterbender and she’s getting really good just with a scroll, not even formal training. You’re an amazing fighter who knows everything about the Earth Kingdom. I’m just a guy with a boomerang.” </p><p>Suki blushed a little at the praise, cursed herself for it, and thanked the spirits he still wasn’t looking at her. She deflected. “You’re a brave warrior and a good leader. It might not be as flashy as - “ </p><p>He cut her off. “Yeah, sure. But that’s something you can learn. I can never be a bender and - “ he stopped, and shook his head. “Sorry. I’m being an idiot. Think I’ll go chop some more wood or something.” </p><p>At that, he made to stand - but her hand caught his and pulled him back down. He started, and looked at her with genuine surprise. She wagged a finger at him - a gesture she’d inherited from Ty Lee, and valuable at that. </p><p>“Nope. You don’t get to go running off into the woods. You need to talk about your problems.” </p><p>“There’s nothing to talk about, Suki.” But for all the protests, he did settle back down, and looked at her curiously. </p><p>“Well, I think there is. Have you heard of the Fifth Nation?” </p><p>He shook his head. Not entirely a surprise, she supposed. </p><p>“They were an incredibly powerful group of pirates in Avatar Kyoshi’s time. Mostly non-benders, actually - “ </p><p>“Great, so I can be a pirate?” </p><p>“Let me finish, Sokka,” she chided and went on. “The common legends say that Kyoshi destroyed them all. But the full histories, passed to us by an airbender called Jinpa, show it was actually the Fire Navy and the Earth King’s armies that did most of the fighting. And they’re overwhelmingly non-benders. The same is true today.” </p><p>Sokka frowned. “Okay, sure. But you can’t deny that benders still find it easier to do things like that.” </p><p>She shrugged. “Sure. And you’re a boy, so you can do some things easier than me too. That doesn’t mean I’m going to sit around and whine. I’m going to even the odds.” </p><p>“I guess - “ his brain caught the last part, and he glowered. She hoped in jest. “I’m not whining!” </p><p>She gave him a deadpan and thoroughly unimpressed look. It took him six seconds to wilt. Mai’s training paid off. </p><p>“Fine, I guess I was, a bit. But, still, even with you training me I’ve got to find some way of stepping up. Or in a few months they’re - “ he gestured at the waterbenders, who seemed to have abandoned their exercises for more general frolicking - “going to be way more useful than me.” </p><p>He wasn’t wrong, she knew. Keeping up with talented benders took practice and resources which he didn’t have. She rifled through the lessons she’d learnt. None of the social side of things would apply. And Ty Lee would have her guts for garters if she taught chi blocking to a potential enemy, because for all she hoped, increasingly hoped, he wouldn’t be, she could not and would not forget the purpose of her assignment. </p><p>Then she hit upon it. A way to provide him with something valuable, and maybe, just maybe, provide a setting to bring him around to a better view of the Fire Nation. </p><p>“I’ve got an idea,” she said, slowly, as is testing it out. “At some point, people are going to want to follow Aang into battle, right?” </p><p>He nodded cautiously but engaged, drawing cues from her tone. </p><p>“Do you think Aang or Katara would know how to work with them?” </p><p>“I guess not,” he said, considering and, she thought, teasing at once. He knew where she was going, she was sure of it, but he wanted to hear it. </p><p>“Well, I have some ideas. And I bet you could think of some more. How about it? Want to be the strategist of the team?” </p><p>It was flattery, of course, and she thought at some level he had to know that. But there was truth to it. His instincts were good. </p><p>“Yeah,” he said, as if tasting the words. Then he nodded again, less cautiously. “Yeah, I like the sound of that.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Haru's town is never actually named, so I called it Asuyi! The Fifth Nation is of course taken from Kyoshi novels, although the argument that in reality the Fire Navy did most of the fighting against them is from Hello Future Me's in-universe lecture on the origins of the Hundred Year War. Meanwhile, what Azula said to Suki is a direct play on Thomas Paine's remarks on the American Revolution, that "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." </p><p>Hopefully this chapter gives a bit of character development and expands on Azula's plans a tad, albeit from the bottom up.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In which Iroh drinks tea, and Azula fights a battle.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Iroh had told Prince Zuko that he was meditating to clear his mind before music night. That was untrue, in both the technical and absolute sense. </p>
<p>In the technical sense, while Iroh was sitting and thinking, his thoughts were directed to matters temporal, not spiritual. And, in the absolute sense, political scheming was the antithesis of spiritual enlightenment. It was the cementing of chains to earthly matters, not the detachment of inner peace. </p>
<p>Years ago, he relished such challenges. But joy had turned to ash and was reforged in duty. Until such a time as the newly emerged Avatar stepped out upon the world stage, the White Lotus would play its part in the promotion of harmony. </p>
<p>Dilettantes would compare strategy of this sort to pai sho. It was a common metaphor, and improper. Pai sho assumed two players in competition to create competing harmony. Ozai had no interest in such things. And, he increasingly feared, neither did Azula. </p>
<p>She had taken Omashu without violence - Bumi’s scheme, although in his taunting of her over the issue, he had delayed it until Ukano could be promoted in Ozai’s favour sufficient to be granted lordship of the city. He was venal and short-sighted without cruelty; tailor made to stir the Earth Nation citizens against Fire Nation occupation without risking embitterment that could prolong the fighting. </p>
<p>The White Lotus had made similar efforts in other colonies, but many - especially the older cities, near a century old, clustered around Yu Dao - had resisted such imposition. Pakku’s advice to flow around them had been heeded. Harmony did not demand separation; although it was facilitated most easily by it. </p>
<p>He took a sip of his tea. Jasmine. Unadventurous, as Azula had said. It was his favourite, a simple brew, and there did not need to be complexity or hidden meaning. Tea was tea, something his dear niece still struggled with.  </p>
<p>Long Feng, acting in the Earth King’s name, had dispatched a fresh army along the northern fringes of the Si Wong desert. Azula’s forces were closing on them - there would be a battle before long, and he did not doubt the Fire Nation’s victory. That Feng had acted so recklessly suggested desperation at court, and ignorance of the Avatar’s coming. Piandao had thought to inform the Grand Secretariat of his awakening, but the tyranny of the Dai Li was scarcely better than Ozai’s rule, and the plan called off. He knew Azula had spread propaganda against the secret police among her forces, used that as a cause to fight for. He couldn’t help but be proud of her for that. </p>
<p>The more profitable theatre was to the south, in Gaoling. Order agents had identified several earthbending masters there, and it was the Avatar’s intended training ground. Iroh suspected Azula knew that. General Mak had been dispatched with 40,000 troops to take the city with all possible dispatch - that was the wording of the official orders. </p>
<p>Iroh had taken responsibility, in a remote sense, of directing delicate sabotage against the host. Paperwork was being confused, bridges blocked for repairs, rations spoiled before delivery. Sand in the machine. It would slow them, and he hoped it would be enough. Aside from the Avatar, or an assembly of the masters of the Order, there was no alternative; and he dearly wished to avoid violence, especially against loyal soldiers of the Fire Nation. </p>
<p>His thoughts turned to the boy. He did not enough information about the Avatar, and this - he admitted it openly, because failure to admit flaws was the first step to excusing them - galled him. He had been impressed by what he had seen in Prince Zuko’s brushes with the boy, but knowledge of his temperament was sorely lacking. The Order served the Avatar, as it always had and always would. But in the hundred years of absence, it was possible their values had diverged. He hoped that was not the case, but so little was known. </p>
<p>Still more concerning was that a Kyoshi Warrior had joined his companions. They were a proud and skilled group, Kyoshi’s descendants in as true a sense as the fruits of the Avatar cycle. But the islanders were clannish and suspicious. The Water Tribe siblings with the Avatar had clear motivations and interests. The Warriors of Kyoshi did not, and Kyoshi Island itself did support Azula’s campaigns. </p>
<p>Slipping a spy into the Avatar’s party was not beyond her. Or worse, an assassin. He allowed the thought and the fear to wash through him without alighting - because until they reached the North Pole, nothing could be done, and so worries were without purpose - and continued on. </p>
<p>It circled back to her, to his niece. As much Lu Ten’s sister as Zuko’s. She had his son’s talent for command alloyed to his nephew’s drive. Her hatred of and disdain for Ozai ran purer and faster than most. In five years she had begun hewing a new nation out of the western Earth Kingdom. A reshaping of a celestially mandated order ten thousand generations old. He had to smile at the hubris. It had been his, as much as Ozai’s. </p>
<p>Her plans ran further than that. He could guess at their outlines. Capture the Avatar. Cement her authority in the western Earth Kingdom, put paid to Long Fen, and ascend to the throne - at or before her allotted time - of a permanently enlarged Fire Nation. It had the stamp of the military about it, unsubtle, a fast flowing but shallow stream. What flash floods were made of. </p>
<p>He could still see her laughing in the palace gardens, or bending with the furious determination of childhood. Her rigidly controlled posture at his son’s funeral, the determination with which she had told him that the war had to end, that she would end it. As much his daughter as Ozai’s. The thought did not cheer him. </p>
<p>He sipped his tea, and made a face - it was cold. He warmed it with a gentle flame, and settled back into place. There was much more to consider, and much more to do, before an old man could enjoy his music in peace. </p>
<p>--- </p>
<p>Her army came with the dawn. Sixty five thousand regulars from the 1st, 2nd, and 15th Corps kicking up dust along the road to the village crossroads at Kachuta, accompanied by hundreds of tanks, clanking monstrosities belching smoke. Ten miles to the west, another fifteen thousand men and women of the 7th Corps - separated from their fellows by the foothills of the northern Kolau range that came down to rumple the skirts of the Baiyi’s floodplains - roused from their camp and arrayed for battle. </p>
<p>To the north was difficult terrain, and hundred thousand Earthen troops. </p>
<p>Posterity would name it the Battle of Hiyao, after the port town on the Nan Rang river, tributary to the Baiyi, which both armies fought to secure. But the action was far broader. At the extreme west, where the 7th Corps made their preparations, were the Naran woods, red pine and larch which shivered with the wind and anticipation of future violence. To their immediate north reared a range of hills, surmounted by the terraced land called Yu Ba’s Farm, the last memory of a long dead lord. To its north-west was the small town of Ikuze, a crossroads which anchored the Earth Kingdom’s right.</p>
<p>Cutting across the centre of the battlefield was a low rise called the Yujai Ridge, so named for the village, a cluster of huts huddled at its apex, around a solid stone road leading from Kachuta to Hiyao. Fong placed 40,000 troops there, dug in like badger-moles with something to prove. The most direct advance upon Hiyao was highly secured. </p>
<p>To the east, the Yujai Ridge gave way to open farmland, fields of tilled earth divided by low earthen walls raised in ancient patterns by benders no longer living. The first green shoots of the soybean harvest were beginning to poke up from the spring soil - and were promptly crushed down again by the tracks of Earth Kingdom tanks, two divisions of heavy armour moving to block any advance. The eastern extremity was centred around Mishu’s Farm, a local magnate who had fled the previous winter. The buildings stood empty, but they made for strong positions, bounded by a sunken road to their fore. Ba Sing Se green flew above it. </p>
<p>From her command post in Kachuta, Azula could see only fragments of the picture, the sweeping majesty of incipient and purposeful slaughter. She didn’t need to see more. This was a duel, an Agni Kai on the grand scale. She knew Fong’s intent and dispositions. That was sufficient. She knew he had been ordered to defend Hiyao, and with the river to his back, withdrawal would not be simple. He outnumbered her, but not unduly, and his forces were stretched thinner than Zuko’s patience. </p>
<p>She washed her face in a bowl of water, took tea with her staff, and set brush to paper. Within the hour, the message hawks were flying. </p>
<p>The 1st and 2nd Corps would advance directly upon Yujai, to fix the enemy’s main force there and, if conditions permitted, force the line. The 15th Corps, with its additional consignment of armoured units and self-propelled artillery, would hook right against Mishu’s Farm and unhinge the enemy flank, while the 7th Corps demonstrated against Ikuze on the left. </p>
<p>Fong, on the other side of the hill, did not have her confidence. He had been awake through the night, spot-checking defensive positions and trying to reassure his men - if he could call them that. The great hosts of the west had fallen. Most of his force were the gutter scrapings of Ba Sing Se, endless mother of the nation. But they had had two days to prepare, and Dai Li agents seeded through the ranks at Long Feng’s command to stiffen their resolve. He was the earth at war. His army would hold the Fire Nation’s hordes at bay, with neutral jing, and his 20,000 reserve troops - solid professionals, the very last elements stripped from the eastern garrisons - would be committed at the right moment. As Azula took her tea, he prayed to Yangchen and Kyoshi for guidance. </p>
<p>Along the line, as the orders rippled out on both sides, thousands of others joined him. The sky was thick with supplications for protection, for wisdom, for luck. A regiment of the Keosoho, of the 3rd Division of the 15th Corps, burnt a moo-sow alive as sacrificial offering to their faceless spirit of slaughter. Its panicked squealing drifted high and pure to the Earthen lines, and set faces pale with fear. </p>
<p>Even with the early start, it was an hour off noon by the time the Azulans were satisfactorily arrayed for battle, and began their advance. In the centre, drums beat the slow march as 36,000 men and women began their climb towards Yujai. At the right of the line, three hundred tanks surged forward in dagger formations, bound for Mishu’s Farm and the fields beyond, churning across, over, and through the spirit-blessed walls. </p>
<p>The first fighting cropped up on the left of Azula’s line, as the 29th Regiment, leading the 7th Corps advance, came under withering attack from earthbenders pushed forward into the Naran woods. Crouched behind cumbersome metal shields, teams of benders shot pre-formed stone darts into their ranks, smashing whole files to flinders with ease, holing and overturning tanks. The road became an enfiladed charnel house, disoriented infantry crouched at its margins and hedgerows, every gout of flame in attempted retaliation met with a fresh barrage. </p>
<p>Seeing the distress of the 23rd, Colonel Hwang of the neighbouring 45th deviated from his orders. His regiment were cavalry troopers, auxiliaries mostly drawn from the western fringes of the Si Wong Desert mounted on ostrich-horses with wicked lances and sandbenders among them. “By the spirits,” he exclaimed, drawing his men into formation, “those Inta fellows are sorely pressed. We must relieve them.” At his words, the 45th rode out, abandoning the trail, mounts leaping nimble-footed over hedges and stream-beds. </p>
<p>Their sandbenders threw up a cloud of grit to cover them, riding as if Sozin was their captain through frantic Earthen shot. They reached the treeline and kept going, cutting down the defending earthbenders, roasting the tight formations of non-benders who clumped up to ward them off. Hwang fell, but by his sacrifice, and that of the Si Wong cavaliers, the Naran woods were overrun, the Earthen forces falling back pell-mell upon Ikuze, Azulan fire licking at their heels. </p>
<p>Things were not so decisive at the centre around Yujai. Azula’s orders were exact, that the 1st and 2nd Corps were not to attempt a storm of the enemy position unless they ordered. Instead, they advanced some way up the slope and dug in, auxiliary earthbenders creating trenchworks, aided by frantic shovelling from Azulan veterans who knew well the cost of ill-preparedness. Their armour hung back, not risking bombardment. At Fong’s personal direction, defending earthbenders rolled stone projectiles down upon their hated foe, but the Azulans would not be repulsed by such meagre efforts. </p>
<p>Conventional battle was joined in earnest on the right, as the 15th Corps’ armour arrowed in towards the pair of Earthen divisions. Tanks brewed up left and right as earthbenders fired volleys at the firebending vehicles, who had to get in close with their heavily armoured counterparts to stand a hope at penetrating their thick hide. Captain Jazuk of the 11th Caldera Mechanised Brigade became an ace twice over as his company fought through bitter resistance in the advance on Mishu’s Farm and the sunken road which girded it. </p>
<p>Assessing the situation, Azula sent orders to General Tairah, commanding the 7th Corps, to advance her divisions upon Ikuze. Her force in the centre, by its mere presence, contained much of Fong’s attention, while the action on the right was swinging, bloodily and messily, in her favour. If Ikuze fell, the 7th Corps’ reserve armour could surge upon Hiyao from the west and Yujai from the rear, assuring swift victory. </p>
<p>Fong did not see this danger, instead dispatching reserves to strengthen Mishu’s Farm, and cursing that the delaying action in the Naran had proven so short-lived. However, General Fanaoh, commanding earthen forces on Yu Ba’s Farm, did. Tairah began her advance on Ikuze, but Fanaoh ordered rocks rolled from Yu Ba and advanced his reserves down the slope towards Ikuze, taking the Azulan divisions in the flank. </p>
<p>A continued offensive there was impractical and costly. </p>
<p>Azulan forces ran into similar obstacles on the right. Inspired by Jazuk’s charge, more troops broke through towards the sunken road, but the Earthen armour repositioned to enfilade the natural barrier. Assisted by Fong’s reinforcements, the position was strengthened to nigh-impregnability. Colonel Akale discovered this to her cost, her brigade of dismounted infantry which had accompanied the armour torn apart in three successive attacks on the road. The ground was littered with smashed plate and bodies, the earth reddened by the invader’s blood, air thick with screams. </p>
<p>The action was an hour and a half old, and risked descending into grinding, attritional stalemate. Then stepped forth Captain Kori of the 22nd Yu Dao Volunteers, then staging in the northern fringes of the Naran woods.  </p>
<p>It was clear to her that Yu Ba, still spitting projectiles and waving the flaunting green rag, had to fall if the offensive against Ikuze were to be re-attempted. Tairah would never order an assault upon the hill’s steep slopes. Not unless she was forced to do so. </p>
<p>Wrenching the flag of the 22nd from the colour sergeant, Kori set out at a run up the slope, the crimson cloth snapping taught behind her. </p>
<p>Seeing it, and knowing the military truth of the situation, Colonel Sato of the 22nd drew her sword and cried out, “Will you see our flag take the hill alone?” and set off after the captain, joined in short order by the rest of her men, and the neighbouring regiments, including a reconstituted and blood-hungry 29th. </p>
<p>Kori ran on, while shot buzzed around her ears, and walls of earth sprang up to block her passage. Arrows whistled down on the troops she led, first in dribs and drabs and then whole volleys as Earthen officers turned to the new threat. The ground rose sharply as the summit neared, and she scrabbled to cover on hands and knees. More of the men and women behind her fell, tumbling down the slope or impaled to the earth. </p>
<p>But the defences on that flank of Yu Ba were weak, and auxiliary earthbenders in the 22nd - along with Kori, herself a prodigious talent - raised boulders and walls for their cover, and smoothed the path for their compatriots. Colonel Sato reached the fore and took charge, directing the earthbenders to create three stepped paths. The advance resumed at pace, the tide of Azulan soldiery swamping the overstretched Earthen troops, fighting brief and bitter and deadly. Kori lost a leg and Sato a hand, but within minutes the green had been ripped down and the crimson streamed from the summit of Yu Ba. </p>
<p>Tairah, who had missed the charge, did not miss the opportunity. She re-committed at once to the attack on Ikuze. Azula ordered her to break off two armoured brigades and surmount Yu Ba before turning east and plunging along the road to a flyspeck hamlet called Liala and hence Hiyao. This order was followed with alacrity. By an hour past noon, Azulan tanks were growling their way up the western hills for the greater effort, even as fireballs rained on Ikuze with renewed ferocity. </p>
<p>Fong saw the crisis on his right and did not, contrary to Azula’s expectations, panic. Instead, he cursed all fates, made supplication to the spirits, and ordered his force in Ikuze to withdraw to Liala. At the same time, he refused the right flank of his position on the Yujai Ridge, pulling them back into a contiguous crescent connecting the high ground with Liala. His reserves remained uncommitted. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the bold Azulan push against Mishu’s Farm had bogged down entirely. A shaken Akale called off operations against the sunken road, and attention was turned west to the fields fringing the lowest reaches of the Yujai Ridge. General Reza, commander of the 2nd Division of the 15th Corps, led the effort in person, sending one hundred and fifty tanks forward against just forty enemy vehicles. Exhausted Earthen troops, who had fought non-stop for three hours, began to waver, cowering into foxholes or turning to flee and victory on the Azulan right seemed as likely as on Azulan left. </p>
<p>But one Earthen commander did not falter. Colonel Pahin, of the Omashu Brigade, whose home had been taken from him by Azulan conquest and Bumi’s surrender, swore an oath to the spirits and ancestors that he and his men would not take one step backwards. They charged into the fray, infantry on foot facing tanks, holding the line though they were burnt by the score, the fury of a nation wronged and a city robbed given form and deadly purpose. </p>
<p>Seeing their bravery, General Kanoh, holding that flank in Fong’s name, shouted to her men, “See Pahin standing like a stone wall! Rally, boys, rally behind Omashu!” and the line which had wavered, which had buckled, reformed anew. </p>
<p>When Azula saw that latest development, her staff officers expected anger, or at least concern. They were unsettled, though none would voice it, that she smiled. Fong’s retreat from Ikuze and shortening of the line centred around Liala was a temporary measure, freeing as it did her forces to entirely flank his army and cross the river - but that would take significant time, and such an effort would be vulnerable to isolation via a local counter-offensive. Decision was required, and the stalemate on her right provided it. </p>
<p>Fong was, therefore, surprised and pleased to see three Azulan divisions abandon their positions on the forward slope of the Yujai Ridge and slowly, laboriously, shift their formations and dispositions towards the grinding battle on the right. Azula, he judged, had made a critical mistake, weakening her centre at the expense of flashy movement on her flanks - a classic firebender error, a lack of neutral jing. He ordered his elite reserves to advance, accompanied by over half of his main force atop the ridge. </p>
<p>It was a majestic sight, out of the tales of yore. Fifty thousand Earthen soldiers, bearing dozens of colours, from state after state. Local lords and nobles to the fore, armour shot through with gold, pikes and swords catching and glinting on the sun - stark counterparts to the shadows of earthbenders bedecked in stone armour, bearing boulders to crush the enemy. Above it all, the deep, royal green of Ba Sing Se flew in glory. Hearts loyal to court and king rejoiced. Here, they would crush the invaders. Here, the best general of the mongrel hosts would be bested. Here, as the spirits willed it, all would witness their triumph. </p>
<p>The spirits will was unknown, but Azula’s was. And she had no truck with nor time for Earthen victory. </p>
<p>She went forward from Kachuta by eel-hound to join her forces on the line, walking among them, smiling and offering assurances. Rocks began to roll down from the advancing Earthen host, but it was suppression only - Fong intended to carry the position by main force. Fire Nation artillery and benders answered, and their own earthbenders sought to deflect the rocks. They reaped a toll upon the enemy, ripping into the formations, but they were outnumbered three to one. </p>
<p>In his command post, Fong saw victory dancing before him, so close he could reach out and touch it. The Azulans to his right had washed up against the defences around Liala. To the left, they were bogged down and entangled. At the centre, they would be crushed and the matter would be decided. </p>
<p>Azula waited until the enemy were in bow-shot, the first volleys pattering down around the entrenched troops. The enemy were clearly massing to charge, stirred on by officers, faint words of exhortation carried through afternoon air perturbed by fire and shot. </p>
<p>She raised an arm almost casually, and fired three quick blasts of blue flame into the air. </p>
<p>The response was immediate and grievous. The divisions she had dispatched to the right, who’s sluggish movement had so tempted Fong, shed the deception of timidity. Their rear elements, which if the Earthen general had examined them more closely, were unusually heavy on armour, wheeled at once and sped towards the right flank of the Earthen forces, followed at the double pace by infantry who needed no exhortation towards the slaughter. </p>
<p>The Earthen formation near buckled as it tried to come to grips with this new threat, thoughts of charges forgotten, their flank trying to wheel in response and becoming tangled up in their own confusion. </p>
<p>One minute later, the fortified Azulan divisions to the front of the Earthen host rose from their trenches, Azula at their head with flames flaring blue, and descended upon the enemy. Assailed from the front and flank, they broke and ran with shattering swiftness. Half the enemy army, conscripts and professionals alike, put to flight by shock and by fire, the entire centre caving in as one. Reserves of Azulan armour, held back from the trench lines, surging into the breach, engines howling and flames roaring, to prevent any retreat by the now isolated Earthen flanks. </p>
<p>The battle ended scarcely an hour later. Hiyao was taken, and the last major field army of the Earth Kingdom destroyed. The road to Ba Sing Se was open.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>There's a ton of American Civil War references in the battle scenes - inserted purely for fun! Hopefully the battle was easy-ish to follow, I thought about making a map but my art skills really aren't good enough unfortunately.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Gaang meets Jet. Suki has thoughts about this, and takes action appropriately.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She knew it was irrational bias and her own irritation, but Suki couldn’t quite shake the thought that Jet’s partisans could afford to wash more frequently. They lived right next to a river, for the spirit’s sake. </p>
<p>Still, Aang seemed to like them, and so did Katara - although the ‘them’ was far more singular in her case. Sokka was ever a bastion of sanity in his opposition to spending time with the fighters, but she hadn’t wanted to precipitate a split and so all four had spent the evening after stumbling into a counter-ambush on a Fire Nation munitions convoy. </p>
<p>And now, Sokka and her had been invited to join Jet on a mission. Which seemingly involved squatting on a tree branch and watching a pathway. </p>
<p>She didn’t want to fight Fire Nation soldiery, if she could avoid it. They were still south of the Great Divide, still in Azula’s area of operations. These were allies, engaged in a process of reform and inclusion. Cover had to be maintained, but even so, her guts twisted when Sokka announced a traveller on the path ahead. She gripped her fans tighter. </p>
<p>The figure below, visible through the brown-gold leaves was hunched over, walking slowly - an old man, with the cleansing flame of Zoryu’s physicians upon his satchel. </p>
<p>“False alarm,” she heard Sokka say, talking to Jet, “it’s just an old man.” </p>
<p>Jet debouched from the tree branch anyway, holding the physician at swordpoint, raving about leeches and destroying villages. One of his thugs joined him. She didn’t want to intervene, not unless she had to; Jet was a formidable fighter with his hook-swords, and both Aang and Katara were in his power. She stayed on look-out duty, as agreed. This could be a trap, after all. </p>
<p>Sokka wasted no time on such calculation, confronting Jet and demanding the old man be left alone - this was refused, the man robbed, and the party returned to camp. Sokka was in an especially foul temper when she caught up to him on the wooden decking of the hut they’d been granted. </p>
<p>“Where were you?” he asked, shortly. His cheeks were flushed, hands clenching. </p>
<p>She sat down next to him carefully. “Katara and Aang are still here. I didn’t want to risk them.” </p>
<p>Incredulity passed over his face. “Do you really think - “ </p>
<p>She nodded once, firmly. “These aren’t freedom fighters. They’re daofei. Criminals. I don’t trust them at all. We need to leave.” </p>
<p>He seemed almost relieved, so naturally, that was moment Aang and Katara appeared, rounding the arc of the platform, Katara holding a bizarre orange contraption in one hand. “ - don’t know if it’d clash,” Aang was saying, considering the thing; what, if Suki squinted, she could now sort of see as being a hat.</p>
<p>Aang broke off as he saw the pair of them, but it was Katara who jerked the conversation onto a new course. “Hey, you’re back! Is Jet around as well?” </p>
<p>“Yeah,” Sokka said, getting to his feet, “and he’s - “ </p>
<p>Suki cut him off with a look and a pointed cough. He was, she judged, far too emotionally compromised to make the argument in a convincing fashion. Detachment was a weapon as keen as any blade. Mai’s teaching, and good one, for all she despised pithy quotes. “We have some serious concerns about Jet,” she said.</p>
<p>They sat as she explained how the mission in the morning had gone. An ambush to rob a helpless old man, from the Fire Nation, yes, but a doctor. Sokka interjected - no, she rephrased it mentally even as she said it, because what he was doing was far more complementary than that - Sokka interweaved his own commentary, pointing out how Jet’s strategy didn’t even make sense for pushing the Fire Nation out of the valley. Small time robbery was one thing, but they weren’t expanding their controlled area or working with the local citizens. Just a bunch of kids hiding in the woods playing at bandit. </p>
<p>He’d taken to her lessons like a turtle-duck to water, and the thought made her smile. </p>
<p>It took the better part of an hour to explain, to discuss, to argue and rationalise. But, eventually, with all of Katara’s objections bar pure stubbornness swept aside, Aang resolved it. He stood, and smiled, and said simply, to both her and Sokka. “I trust you. Let’s go.” </p>
<p>That was not such a warming thought. </p>
<p>— </p>
<p>They made camp on the other side of the valley, far from Jet’s hideout, relatively close to the village. She didn’t think there would be any retaliatory attack, their parting had been amicable enough, for all that Jet had seemed disappointed. But you couldn’t trust daofei. </p>
<p>She knew the Fire Nation had committed evils. But there was no purpose paying evil unto evil. The war had ground on for a century, and would for longer yet, unless fire and earth could put aside their differences and go forward to a shared future. Azula was building that, in league with countless thousands across the Earth Kingdom. Jet’s band were futile remnants of a resentful past.</p>
<p>And that was why the way they’d greeted the crates of blasting jelly with such joy was not especially welcome. </p>
<p>Hence, under the cover of foraging, she went to the village with warning as her intent. </p>
<p>There were two guards posted at the gates, non-benders with spears and light armour. Garrison troops, but they carried themselves with alertness. “Halt,” one said, stepping forward as she emerged onto the path. “Who goes there?” </p>
<p>Her choice and mask smoothed the features of her face to self-assured placidity and confidence, back straight and eyes front. Small gestures, almost subconscious in their effect, but no less meaningful. “Lieutenant Su Li,” she said, voice hard and fast. “3rd Army Intelligence Corps. I need to speak with your commanding officer.” </p>
<p>The rank was proportionate to her age, and a lesser one at that, but the prestige of her position imbued it with authority. The 3rd Army, the Princess’s Army. </p>
<p>“I’m going to need to see your identification papers,” one of them said, stepping forward. </p>
<p>“Because,” she replied, acid on stone, “an undercover operative always carries papers identifying her as an agent. I verify my identity as follows - rose wishes thorn ascending.” The latest verification code, passed to her as part of Azula’s message in Asuyi. She went on, words clattering like running boots on flagstones. “Check your code books. Or better yet, fetch your superior. Time is short.” </p>
<p>A code book was checked. The gate was opened. Tea was poured. A superior was fetched. </p>
<p>A Captain Rimor commanded the garrison, a platoon of troops drawn from northern Yu Dao state. Most of them, himself included, were of Earth Nation origin, or else the mixed inheritance of intermarriage. He was fine-featured, and a courteous host, but Suki didn’t have time for pleasantries - her companions, and Sokka especially, would take note of her absence before long. She acknowledged its inconvenience even as the thought cheered her. </p>
<p>“Captain, you lost a convoy of blasting jelly yesterday, didn’t you?” </p>
<p>He blinked. “I did, but, the normal losses of - “ </p>
<p>Her smile was calibrated to be reassuring. It probably fell short of the mark. The challenge of the Su Li persona. “I’m not here to make an issue on that. It was seized by a band of partisans in the hills to the direct east of here. Twenty strong, but with that explosive on their side…” She let his imagination fill in the gaps. </p>
<p>“Agni and Shu,” he cursed. “But even so, they couldn’t overrun the garrison, not without taking grievous losses.”</p>
<p>“If you wanted to rid this region of our forces without a direct confrontation, how would you do it?” It sounded like a rhetorical question. It wasn’t. She didn’t know, not anything beyond creeping theories and uncertainties, but she could hardly voice such things. </p>
<p>“I…” he trailed off, and then started. “Blowing the dam. But surely they wouldn’t? It would flood the whole valley, wipe out the village and destroy the crops. It would be a disaster.” </p>
<p>She thought about Jet’s voice and his youth, his hatred and his inexperience. It was all too possible. And with a calamity of that scale, a possibility had to be treated with every seriousness. “A disaster, yes, but one they would blame on us. We can’t have that.”</p>
<p>He shook his head. “We can’t secure the dam. Not without splitting up and spreading too thin.” </p>
<p>“I see,” she said. “Send for reinforcements, tell them Su Li from the Princess’ staff concurs. That should light a fire under Regional Command North. Do you have earthbenders in the village? A flood wall may be valuable.” </p>
<p>They spoke of the details for a few minutes before she took her leave, buying up bread in the local market and setting off into the forest once again. Buying things was technically foraging, right? Ozai ultimately paid the bill either way. </p>
<p>— </p>
<p>The group made preparations to leave the next morning, having given Appa the night to rest. Katara was still a little short with the pair of them, but she’d abandoned the haberdasher’s nightmare - something of a blessing - and Sokka had been remarkably mature and restrained in not needling her about the affair. </p>
<p>Appa had just cleared the treetops when the air rang with sudden thunder in a cloudless sky. </p>
<p>Suki’s stomach sank like a stone, and she looked east - to a column of greasy black smoke rising where the dam and reservoir had stood. </p>
<p>“What’s that?” Aang asked, looking around. </p>
<p>The river answered him, surging and pouring out, a wave of blue frothed with white. The reservoir was only half full, but it was still a wall of water, inexorable, ripping up trees and hurling stones, running past and over, bursting the banks. The village was below, a minute away, Rima’s walls pitiful scars on the landscape in comparison. </p>
<p>“The Fire Nation - “ Katara began, wondering and furious without outlet. </p>
<p>Suki’s mouth was dry. “Jet. It was Jet, but - “ </p>
<p>Aang cut any recrimination down dead. “It doesn’t matter who it was. We’ve got to stop it. Sokka, take Appa’s reins and bring him down closer to the water. Katara, let’s freeze it!” There was energy and economy to his movements, and she saw in that brief moment what the Avatar was, who Aang was and would become. </p>
<p>The bison swooped low as they reshuffled, pushing hard and fast to race the water. Katara and Aang stood on either side of the saddle, hands outstretched and stances strong. No time for worries and reassurances. Only actions and she couldn’t help but admire it. </p>
<p>“Now!” Katara said, judging the distance, and lashed out with her hands. Ice formed, spread, broke, on the churning surface. She snarled, and Aang with her, and the ice reached out again - and the ice held. </p>
<p>At the very first, it was simply borne along, but the cold spread, chilling through the water, faster and faster, an iceberg in mid-formation, liquid to solid all the way back to the source. Two waterbenders in full clarity of purpose and the noon of their might, fighting the very element, and crushing it to their will. </p>
<p>It took barely two minutes for the crisis to be put aside, Appa soaring through the sky towards their next destination. Citizens were already flooding out from the village, some evacuating, others coming to reinforce their walls and hew apart the ice. All were smiling, for all had seen the Avatar, and knew him to be good. </p>
<p>— </p>
<p>A day later, Admiral Zhao was smiling for a very different reason. He absentmindedly scratched the preening messenger hawk under its chin, and took out his writing brush. Pohaui Stronghold was two days flight west of his headquarters, and speed was clearly of the essence.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>We meet Mai and Ty Lee! Meanwhile, things go south for the Gaang.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The battlefield was four days old, and the air still stank. </p><p>Azula walked with Zhang past the docks on the Nan Rang, cargo galleys of Earth Kingdom make casting off with splashing oars and red-faced bosuns, bound for the East Lake. A pair of Fire Nation steam launches prowled in the mid-river, low and predatory. Burnt flesh from the funeral pyres atop the Yujai to the south warred with salted fish and greasy coal smoke. Behind them, another company, New Yokoya infantry, marched, bound for their transports, sounding off their war song with abandon - ‘Un-condition-al, un-condition-al, un-condition-al surrender! - ‘ she tuned out the rest, fruit of long practice. </p><p>With Fong crushed, actions against Ba Sing Se could be commenced. Azula was dispatching the 6th Army east along the river to take the Serpent’s Pass and rendezvous with fleet elements still in transit on the Baiyi proper. It was an involved process. She rather wished there was less singing involved. </p><p>“I’m amazed at the variety,” she told Zhang, indicating the Yokoyans with a stab of her thumb. </p><p>His brow furrowed in confusion. “How do you mean?” </p><p>“Just listen to it. Their chorus is just them repeating ‘unconditional surrender’ over and over. Ta Min’s poetry, it is not.” He looked at her blankly, and she dismissed it with a mental shrug. A princess had to have some refinements. She changed subjects. “How are the prisoners?” </p><p>“Well treated, as you commanded,” he said. “Six earthbenders tried to fight back this morning, but most of them are cowed. We will need to separate benders from non-benders before we send them back.” </p><p>“Of course. Have any taken up the offer of auxiliary positions?” </p><p>“Two hundred, at last count. Only fifty for the fighting corps. I’ve made arrangements to disperse them, and intelligence staff will - “ </p><p>“Will watch them, yes. Good.” The Yokoyans had started another song. Damnit. It was making her short. “And relief efforts with the dam collapse?” </p><p>“The first company of engineers arrived this morning. We have a light infantry battalion following to roust out the partisans, two days at the latest.” He paused. “I…didn’t know you had agents active in the area.” </p><p>She permitted herself a smile at that. It was no surprise that Suki excelled, she had already proven that a dozen times before the crowning achievement of infiltrating the Avatar’s band. But all the same, she spread victory wherever she went. Would that she had an army of them. </p><p>“My eyes are everywhere, Zhang,” she said, choosing ominous obliquity over answering the actual question - a luxury to be indulged in, and one which Zhang; unlike many others; could see as such. Actual statements like that said in earnest were reserved for school theatrics and amateur fiction, not real life. </p><p>They reached the warehouse she’d set aside earlier that day. Zhang gave his farewells and salutes, she went in - and received with shocking immediacy, an armful of Ty Lee. </p><p>“Azula!” she exclaimed, still squeezing as if the princess were a tree to climb rather than a person. “It’s been too long.” </p><p>Azula pried her arms away with a learnt gentle firmness and surreptitiously tried to re-inflate her lungs. Embraces were the price of childhood friends. Or some of them, at least, because Mai was also there, sitting on a stack of crates sharpening a knife. She looked up over Ty Lee’s shoulder briefly, nodded, and went back to the blade. </p><p>“It’s been five weeks,” Azula said, stepping more fully into the room. “Not that long. You are both well, I trust?” </p><p>“I’m fine,” Mai said, with a curtness that she would have taken for rudeness from anyone else. With Mai, it was simply efficiency. And perhaps, in this case, an understandable resent to have been back in the Fire Nation. </p><p>“Never been better,” Ty Lee affirmed. “Visiting home was a blast, you should have seen Woo’s face, the spiky armour you picked was so worth it.” </p><p>“Good to hear, and I’m sure Lo would have been sour-faced at anything.” It paid to be diplomatic. They were her friends, yes, but she knew - and they knew she knew - that they were also potent tools. Ones she had a firm grip on - Mai’s boredom with normal life and Ty Lee’s relationship with her sisters made strong handles - but that was subject to change at any point. “We are secure here?” </p><p>“Yes,” said Mai, her knife disappearing into a hidden holster as she brought her attention to focus. “We both checked three times.” </p><p>Azula nodded. “Thank you for your diligence. This information cannot travel further than this room at present. The Avatar is alive, and travelling to the North Poke. Suki has infiltrated his band of companions.” </p><p>“Well done Suki,” Mai said, dryly. Ty Lee appeared so beside herself with excitement on her friend’s behalf that she couldn’t muster the words to properly express it. “Things have become complicated, then?” she went on. </p><p>“They have. The Avatar - his name is Aang - was staying concealed in his journeys. Unfortunately, there was an incident in southern Haishu State; partisans blew up a dam, the Avatar saved a village, but did so in an obvious fashion. We have lost information control, and need to move ahead with the plan to contact him before someone else does; or worse, Zhao gets his hands on him.” </p><p>“Or Zuko,” Mai pointed out. </p><p>Azula made very sure not to find the concept outwardly risible, and simply inclined her head in acknowledgement. “Suki reports,” she went on, “that they’re travelling to the fishing town of Chofon, on the Mo Ce. They’ll be there in four days. I have a steam launch ready to take you there in five.” </p><p>“Why doesn’t Suki make the introduction?” Ty Lee asked, quite reasonably. She had a gift for being reasonable, for all she deliberately hid it. “Or you?” </p><p>“I’m still needed in Hiyao for the next few days. And I don’t know how they’ll react to Suki’s true status. I have briefing material available, and Suki has a rendezvous location in Chofon. Hopefully, all you’ll have to do is show up. Aang is, by all accounts, friendly and trusting.” </p><p>“That will make a nice change from the Fire Nation,” Mai said, sepulchrally. Ty Lee smiled agreement. </p><p>“I’m sure,” said Azula, who hadn’t been back in five years. “I’m glad I can trust you with this.” </p><p>--- </p><p>Sergeant Sirak of the Yuyan Archers had thought it would be harder to find the Avatar. But with the Haishu incident past and already passing into local legend, everyone was on the look out for him - and more than a few could be convinced to part with information they had seen, for a suitable sum. </p><p>No less than four witnesses confirmed it. The Avatar - Aang, two said, who’d overheard it - had landed his bison on the dockside in Chofon, and gone shopping, along with three companions. Two of them, a boy and a girl, had left with a fishing captain in need of extra labour. But Aang had gotten into an argument with the fisherman over some nonsense Sirak didn’t care to parse, and flown off into the mountains, followed moments later by a girl on the bison. </p><p>It had taken his team, five Yuyan’s with eyesight sharper than a hawk’s, no more than half an hour scouring the mountainside, looking for some kind of outcropping or camp. But while the weather was inclement, the first tendrils of a minor storm perhaps, thunder rumbling in the far distance, it was not a sufficient cover. Not against the finest archers of the Fire Nation. A glimmer of light, a cook-fire within a cave, lit up on the mountain, and they knew they had their target. </p><p>Grapnel arrows were prepared, and a hawk sent with information and requesting reinforcements.</p><p>The cave was set high into the mountain face, but there was a projecting spur of rock in front of it, the perfect platform for climbing. Sirak and his men scaled it with trained speed, jumping from toehold to toehold. Arrows with ropes trailing behind secured a path for the last, precipitous section, and they landed cat-like outside the cave. </p><p>Within, two figures talked around a fire. No watch. That was sloppy, thought Sirak, but none of them wasted time on commentary or banter, knocking their arrows. </p><p>Admiral Zhao’s orders had been specific. </p><p>—</p><p>Suki had found the fishing job relaxing. The weather hadn’t been as bad as any of them feared, and there was a pleasing simplicity in the task of hauling in nets, throwing back catch they didn’t want. Reminders of a life before the Kyoshi Warriors. Halcyon. Not something she could indulge in forever, but pleasant all the same. That Sokka enjoyed it too, for similar reasons she guessed, was another benefit. Her enjoyment of that…less so. </p><p>They had crossed into Zhao’s area of command. Azula would want the reveal to take place, and soon. She hoped they would still look at her, even - even if nothing. Those worries were for the future, and she shoved them aside. She could focus on the fishing. </p><p>But all good things had to come an end, and the fisherman bade them farewell with enough coin for the next week - Suki, of course, had her own reserve in three different currencies, but that was for emergencies - and they went back to the stall where Aang and Katara had said they would meet. </p><p>They weren’t there. </p><p>Sokka scratched his head and turned to her. “I’m pretty sure this is the right place?”</p><p>“It is,” she confirmed. “Not like Katara to be late.” </p><p>They shared a smile at her leaving Aang out of it. He was a good kid, but his sense of punctuality perhaps left something to be desired. </p><p>Another five minutes passed. Then ten, and unease was starting to claw at her gut. </p><p>Katara appeared at the end of the street, walking fast, and it eased briefly - only to flower in full force when she realised that Aang wasn’t with her, and saw Katara’s expression of brittle fury. Sokka saw it too, faster than her, and started forward, his arms outstretched. The two embraced. Suki’s hand crept towards her fan. Was her cover blown? It was possible, and this was an ambush, or - </p><p>The siblings broke their hug, and closed the distance to her. Katara spoke. “The Fire Nation took Aang,” she said, words simple and hard and suppressing clear emotion. </p><p>Suki didn’t waste a moment on incredulity. “You got away?” </p><p>Katara nodded, a bob of the head. She was shaking. “He held them off and told me to run. But they captured him and Appa, I saw it and I - “ she cut herself off, voice hoarse. Sokka patted her shoulder. </p><p>This was Suki’s element. There would be time for recrimination, of herself and others, later. Now they had to act. The first priority was to secure themselves. This was Zhao, undoubtedly, Azula would never use such a heavy-handed approach. His men would be looking for the three of them. “There’s an - “ she stopped herself before saying safehouse. Rusty or too trusting or both. “An inn, not far from here. I saw it when we were coming to land. We should get rooms.” </p><p>“Are you crazy?” Katara exploded. “We need to go after him, right now!” </p><p>That was trespassing on Suki’s ground, and she bristled at it. “We can’t do anything if - “ she stopped, acutely aware of how loud they were being. She could not let her anger - or her distraction, because that was what the fishing trip had been, a distraction, a dalliance of which was unworthy - compromise the mission any further. Her next words were low and urgent. “The nearest Fire Nation fortress is at Tunuka, a day’s sail east on the Baiyi. They’ll take him there, probably sedated.” </p><p>Sokka squinted at her. “How did you know that?” </p><p>“I’m a Kyoshi Warrior, not a tour guide,” she said, with more roughness than she intended, and he recoiled. It was for the best, she told herself. She’d been a fool to grow close to him. “We need river transport and getting something fast enough will take the day. With Katara’s waterbending, we can go faster than them and make up for any lost time. You understand?” </p><p>There were shallow nods all around, almost stunned. Azula had taught her well, but the lesson sat uneasily. “Alright,” she said. “Let’s get to the inn, Katara can debrief, and I’ll set about acquiring transport. We’ll get the Avatar back, that I can promise.” </p><p>Katara and Sokka were more cheered by that prospect. She hadn’t said it to reassure them. It was a commitment of will. If need be, she would kill to make it happen.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Please forgive me for skipping the fight scene with the Yuyan's - I tried it a few times and it was very difficult to write. But yep, we're now moving towards something resembling a conclusion! Exciting stuff.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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